"Come, open your mouth," Yang Sijie said, spooning food towards her. "Why are you still disobedient like when you were little? You need someone to feed you just to eat."
Gu Susu ignored him, turning her head further away. She didn't know what he had gone through all these years, nor did she want to know, but he had become too terrifying.
Yang Sijie smiled and said, "Do you remember how we punished the children who didn't eat properly at the orphanage?"
Gu Susu certainly remembered. They were locked in the isolation room for reflection, which was essentially a small dark room. They wouldn't be released until they admitted their mistakes and agreed to eat properly.
For every child in the orphanage, that little dark room was a childhood nightmare.
"You don't have to look at me like that. I don't have an isolation room here. All the decoration and design here is according to your preferences. Don't you think this is your dream castle? If we stay here forever, we'll be like the prince and princess in a fairy tale."
"Yang Sijie, how could you become like this?" Gu Susu said, her heart aching with resentment. "Let me go. Don't worry, you've already broken me and Tianyi apart, and I won't be with him anymore. But I don't want to be with you either."
Yang Sijie said calmly, "Didn't you ask for half a month's leave? If you behave, I'll let you return to your normal life after half a month. Otherwise, staying here for a lifetime wouldn't be bad either. No one will bother us anymore..."
"Give me the bowl, I can eat myself," Gu Susu reached out for the bowl in his hand.
He didn't give it to her, still holding the spoon and saying, "Open your mouth. If you don't like me feeding you like this, I don't mind feeding you with my mouth either."
Gu Susu felt that every sweet word he spoke now sounded like lines from a horror movie. It no longer warmed her or made her feel cozy, only sent shivers of terror down her spine.
Yang Sijie brought a large spoonful of rice to her lips. She swallowed it directly, finding no taste in it.
"Eat slowly, don't choke," Yang Sijie's tone was still so gentle it could make one's bones melt.
Gu Susu let him feed her a few mouthfuls, but her resentment grew. When he was caught off guard, she suddenly slapped him hard across the face.
He froze, surprised that she had resorted to violence again.
Before he could react, Gu Susu suddenly stood up, kicked over the bowl in his hand, leaped over him, and rushed towards the door.
As soon as she pulled the door open a crack, Yang Sijie yanked her back, threw her onto the bed, and tied her up again. He took a syringe from the nearby medical kit and injected a sedative into her.
"Don't be so agitated. You need to calm down," Yang Sijie said, reaching out to stroke her long hair, making her gradually quiet down.
Gu Susu's breathing gradually became even, her tear-blurred vision obscuring everything.
...
Yang Sijie came out of the room and saw that Mark had arrived at the villa at some point and was waiting for him in the hall.
"What is it?" he asked, walking down from upstairs.
Mark said, "Our people lost track of Qin Tianyi. No one knows where he is now."
Yang Sijie's brows furrowed into a knot. "With a child as a target, you still lost him?"
Mark said nervously, "The people over there said they didn't know why Qin Tianyi suddenly checked out early from the original hotel, and then he disappeared. We couldn't find any information about him booking a new room online. What should we do now?"
"Tell them to find him!"
"Okay." Mark prepared to leave immediately.
Yang Sijie called him back. "Order some more fresh ingredients. Order them according to the old list. Those are all things Susu likes to eat."
Mark acknowledged and noticed that he hadn't seen Miss Gu during his visits to the villa in the past few days. Was she still confined to the room upstairs?
"Mr. Yang, is Miss Gu alright? She's so stubborn. Is this okay? Will something happen?"
"Do I understand her better, or do you?" Yang Sijie glanced at him sideways. "Is this any of your business?"
"No, I was being nosy." Mark slapped himself.
Although he hadn't spoken to Gu Susu many times, he could feel that she had previously cherished her past relationship with Mr. Yang and trusted him implicitly.
Was what Mr. Yang was doing now really the right thing?
Yang Sijie waved him away, signaling that he could leave. As Mark turned, he said, "Do you know how to quit addiction? Only by doing this can we completely erase that person from her heart. The pain is only temporary. Nothing can be achieved without breaking something. If I can't win her heart back, I can only reshape her."
"Mr. Yang is right," Mark quickly agreed and immediately retreated.
...
Half a month passed in the blink of an eye. Gu Susu returned to work at Trend Company. On the surface, everything was as usual, though her complexion was slightly weary.
Her colleagues assumed she had gone on vacation and was tired from her trip.
Gu Susu paid no mind to what her colleagues in the office thought. As soon as she returned, she threw herself into her work.
She worked at her desk all day, and even after everyone else had left the office, she was still working overtime.
Just then, her phone rang. She stared nervously at the caller ID. Seeing that it was Su Kangxi, she swiped to answer.
"Sister Susu, why has your phone been turned off these past few days? What have you been busy with?"
Hearing Su Kangxi's tone, Gu Susu guessed he didn't know what had happened recently. "Nothing much. Kangxi, do you know... Yang Sijie, he..."
She couldn't continue, unwilling to think about the unbearable past half-month.
"What do you want to ask me? What happened to Brother Sijie?"
Gu Susu tried to control her emotions and said, "It's nothing. That time we were supposed to have dinner, did you really have something urgent that you couldn't come?"
"I did have something suddenly come up, otherwise I definitely would have gone. Are you still blaming me for this?"
"No, I was just asking casually."
"I heard Brother Sijie hasn't returned abroad yet. I'll treat you all again another day to apologize for missing our last appointment."
Gu Susu immediately said, "No need. I'm still busy with work, so I won't talk to you for long."
Before Su Kangxi could say anything else, she had already hung up.
Su Kangxi muttered to himself in confusion, "It was just one meal I missed, and Sister Susu is really angry with me."
Gu Susu pushed her phone away. Seeing that Su Kangxi didn't seem to be colluding with Yang Sijie and hadn't deliberately missed their appointment that day, she realized that Su Kangxi probably didn't even know how terrifying Yang Sijie had become.
After leaving the company, she rushed back to her rented place without a moment's delay.
Returning here felt like a different lifetime. The large suitcase was still by the door in the living room, with a backpack placed on top of it.
The day before she had dinner with Yang Sijie, she had basically packed her luggage for a vacation. But now, she had completely lost Tianyi.
She could no longer hold back. In a fit of despair, she pushed the entire suitcase over and began smashing it with the bag in her hand, kicking and stomping on the backpack.
After venting her emotions until she was utterly exhausted, she leaned against the wall and sobbed uncontrollably, calling out incoherently, "Tianyi... Tianyi..."
No longer able to support herself, she collapsed onto the living room floor, gasping for breath, her body heaving violently.